The WTO and International
Labour Organization

The WTO Secretariat maintains technical
exchanges with the International Labour Organization with a view to
helping members’ global economic policies. Activities range from
compiling statistics, research and technical assistance and training.

Over the years, the role of the WTO and the
relationship between WTO agreements and ILO labour standards have been
debated, sometimes intensively. There is a body of legal opinion that
says the two cannot be examined in isolation because countries have to
comply with all their international obligations.

Collaboration between ILO and WTO Secretariats

The WTO Secretariat attends sessions of the
ILO Governing Body as observer and also routinely participates in
meetings of the Governing Body's Working Party on the Social Dimension
of Globalization. At different times, WTO participation has been at
head-of-agency level: Mr. Lamy addressed the Working Party on 26 March
2007 concerning the WTO/ILO joint study, and former Director-General,
Mr. Mike Moore, similarly participated in a Working Party session on
18 March 2002, where the Working Party had before it a paper submitted
earlier by the WTO Secretariat on the topic “Trade Liberalization and
Employment”.

Further collaboration has occurred in the
context of work undertaken between 2002-2004 by the World Commission
on the Social Dimension of Globalization (an initiative of the ILO
that brought together 26 eminent personalities to look at the
different facets of globalization); former Director-General, Dr.
Supachai Panitchpakdi, met with the Commission on 14 October 2002.

As well, the WTO Secretariat participates in
follow-up mechanisms to the World Commission, including attendance at
meetings of the ILO's Policy Coherence Initiative. In the last few
years, the WTO Secretariat has on several occasions also attended
conferences and seminars organized by the ILO, when issues of
relevance to the WTO were discussed.

Documents

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